St. Stephen's Green, Art, and Archaeology

We started the day with a big breakfast, then hopped the tram to town. Much less crowded today, now that the one-day bus strike is over.

Our first stop was St. Stephen's Green — a beautiful little park and an important site during the Easter Rising of 1916. The park's role in the rising is described in a series of information boards around the park.

On Easter Monday 1916, the Irish Citizen Army attempted to overthrow the governing British powers in Dublin, by taking control of strategically important sites around the city. Rebels under the command of Michael Mallin and Constance Mankiewicz seized control of St. Stephen's Green. It was the site of fierce fighting with British army units, and bullet holes can still be seen on the arch at the entrance to the park.

After that, we visited the National Gallery, where we saw works of Van Gogh, Vermeer, Signac, John Singer Sargent, and a number of Irish artists, including Jack Butler Yeats, whose work we liked a lot.

On to the National Museum of Archaeology. We were fascinated by the ancient artifacts — Stone Age tools from 7,000 BC; a 4,500-year-old, 15-metre-long dugout boat from Lurgan, County Galway; Bronze Age gold objects (such as the lunula, pictured below) produced between 2400 and 1800 BC; and perfectly preserved Iron Age bog bodies.

Upstairs, we saw the Viking and Medieval artefacts. We were there for hours, and found it fascinating!

After, we walked to the busy and vibrant Temple Bar area (photo below), where the streets are alive with people seeking just the right place for a pint and some live music. We peeked into a few pubs, but chose a nice quiet restaurant instead, and had an outstanding dinner. For Fred it was Irish stew and soda bread; for me it was chicken wrapped in Boxty, served with a creamy leek sauce. Oh yes!

We got back to the hotel at 8:30 or 9, and put our feet up. And that's when we realized that we'd completely forgotten that tonight was supposed to be the Fringe Fest! We bought our tickets weeks ago, and were really looking forward to it. Oh dear. I guess we'll just have to feel good about supporting them, even though we didn't go!